The present invention relates generally to timing devices for scheduling an event, and prompting a person to respond to the event. More particularly, though not exclusively, the present invention relates to a timing device having an attachable pill box and having a series of timers and alarms to be used for scheduling and reminding a person to take his or her medicine.
Over the years, an entire family of pill boxes have been developed in order to assist people in remembering to take their medicine. For instance, small, pocketsized pill boxes have been around for generations and allow a person to fill their pill box with the medicine for the day and conveniently carry it with them. While these traditional pill boxes facilitate the transportation of medicines, a problem often arose when the person was required to take more than one kind of medicine during the day. In such circumstances, the person often may not be able to distinguish the different medicines, and thus, may take the medicine in incorrect dosages or at the wrong time intervals.
In response to this problem, a number of pill boxes were created which had different compartments for holding different medicines. Thus, at the time to take medicine, a person would only have to select the pills from the appropriate compartment. While this tended to minimize the level of confusion associated with taking different medicines, it did little to assist the person to remember when to take their medicine.
As technology has evolved over the last few decades, a large number of solutions have been tried in an effort to assist people with the painful task of remembering to take their medicine. One such solution was to create a pill box having an integral count-down timer. Using this device, a person could place his or her medicine within the pill box and set the count-down timer for a specific time interval, such as four (4) hours. Then, four (4) hours later, the count-down timer will sound and the person will be alerted to take the medicine. While this device provided an effective means to alert a person at the time to take the medicine, it provides no assistance to people having to take more than one medicine at different time intervals. In fact, since the count-down timer only accommodates a single time interval, it is useless for combinations of medicines having different administration times unless the user resets the count-down timer over and over again.
To overcome the multiple administration time problems associated with count-down timers, timers were developed having more than one count-down timer interval. Using these devices, a person could set a first count-down timer for four (4) hours, and a second count-down timer for eight (8) hours. When the first count-down timer sounded, the person could take his or her first dose of medicine, and when the second count-down timer sounded, the person could take his or her second dose of medicine. In circumstances where the pill box included more than one compartment, each of the timers could be associated with one or more of the compartments, and thus when the first timer sounds, medicine in one compartment may be taken, and when the second timer sounds, medicine in the other compartment may be taken.
While the pill boxes with count-down timers assisted the medicine-takers in remembering their medicine, these devices were ineffective in situations where the count-down timers would sound when the person was unable to take the medicine, such as during a meeting. However, since the person would need to quiet the timer immediately, the timer would be disabled, and then the person would once again have to rely on his or her memory to take the medicine following the meeting, for example.
In circumstances where the medicine cannot be taken when the timer sounds, a person""s entire medicine schedule may become delayed. In addition, many existing devices do not monitor whether the medicine was taken, or at what time the medicine was taken.
Although some pill boxes with timers may assist people in remembering to take their medicine, unfortunately most of these devices must be re-programmed on a daily basis. This re-programming introduces the opportunity to make errors, and may be too difficult for the elderly.
Even if the pill box has the ability to remember a schedule of medicine from day to day, the person is still required to re-load the pill box compartments with the medicine for the day, and may result in the person not using the pill box, or making errors in the constant refilling of the compartments.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a pill box having a scheduling device capable of notifying a person when to take his or her medicine. It would also be advantageous to provide a pill box capable of tracking whether or not the person has in fact taken his or her medicine after the notification. Also, it would be advantageous to provide a pill box having the ability to notify and track more than one medicine administration, including medicines having different dosages and administration intervals.
It would also be advantageous to provide a pill box having a detachable timer device such that a number of pill boxes may be loaded with medicine at the same time. Thus, at the beginning of the week, the detachable timer device may be moved from pill box to pill box so that the person does not have to refill the pill box each day, thereby minimizing the likelihood of error in selecting the medicine, or in remembering to refill the box. This feature would be particularly advantageous for the elderly as they would no longer be responsible for selecting their medicine on a daily basis, but would be able to have an assistant load their pill boxes for the entire week at one time. Further, there is a need for information providing the time the last medicine was taken and whether a dose was missed or skipped.
The above noted problems, and others, are overcome by this invention, which comprises a box having multiple medicine compartments, each of which typically holds one or more pills, capsules or the like and a timing device capable of scheduling medicine administration, monitoring whether an administration schedule is followed, and alerting the user of an appropriate scheduled administration event.
The pill box of the present invention includes a number of medicine compartments. A pill splitter may be fastened to the pill box to permit pills to be divided as necessary. Each of the medicine compartments is equipped with a hinged, releasable, lid so that medicine may be placed in the compartment, the lid closed and the box safely transported. A latch for releasably locking the lid in the closed position is also included.
The timing device of the device includes a microprocessor programmed to facilitate the scheduling and administration of medicine. Specifically, the timing device is equipped with a number of timers and/or alarms, with each such timer and/or alarm corresponding to a single medicine compartment in the storage box. In this manner, when the timer and/or alarm corresponding to a particular medicine compartment is activated, the person can identify the appropriate time and dosage for that medicine. The alarm preferably has a volume control, so that the alarm can be made quite loud for use by those with impaired hearing. Each compartment may be filled once a week, once daily or whenever the compartment becomes empty, as desired.
Due to the detachable nature of the medicine storage box, the box may be separated from the timing device for individual use, or for periodically changing boxes, such as providing a different box for each day of the week, where numerous different medicines must be taken at different times each day. Also, in the event a large amount of medicine is consumed daily, a first storage box may be loaded with a morning supply of medicine and another box filled with the afternoon supply of medicine.
An important advantage of the present invention is the ability to associate the timer device with any number of storage boxes. Consequently, it is no longer necessary to reload a pill box every day, but rather the entire week""s worth of medicine may be placed in series of seven different boxes. Each box may then be secured to the timing device in seriatim each day to provide the medicine for that day. Moreover, a care giver may preload this medicine for an elderly person, thereby eliminating the need for the person to organize his or her own medicine administration. Also, if desired the user can leave the medicine in the original bottle and the alarm number can be written on the bottle.
A wide variety of information is provided by the timer and alarm box. For example, in addition of alerting the user to times at which medicine should be taken, the timer box will inform the user when the last dose of each medicine was taken and how many doses have been missed or intentionally skipped. The display will tell the user when the next dose of each medicine is scheduled to be taken. If the user has not taken the medicine when an alarm has sounded, at a later time the user can look at the xe2x80x9cnextxe2x80x9d indication and decide if it is safe to take a late dose or to wait for the next alarm for that medicine.